living + learning

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the farm girl’s first day

September 6, 2010 in farms + food, living + learning, parenting by eringoodman | 5 comments

I took a little time off from blogging last week to focus my attention on helping our favorite Farm Girl transition into her first week of kindergarten – and what a smooth and lovely transition it was!

On the first day, before heading to the bus stop, we took a walk around our yard while talking about all the wonderful things we did this summer and what kindergarten might be like.

We visited our garden (which has expanded out into the grass) and discovered our first green pumpkin peeking out from under the leaves.

Next Lily said goodbye to the chickens, which I promised to take very good care of while she was at school.

And then we headed out to the bus stop where we waited and chatted some more until suddenly, before I knew it this happened.

[This, by the way, would be the moment that Mama completely forgot how to breathe. Luckily Papa was willing to trail the bus to school and provide on the scene reports via text message to soothe the anxious Mama back home.]

Three hours later, she was back. Absolutely beaming while she reported that…

“School is SO AWESOME Mama!!”

We enjoyed lunch together and then we did what we do.

We packed up the car and headed off to work where Lily was greeted like a celebrity by the farm crew, which she soaked up for a few minutes and then got right to work doing her chores (checking on the calves and helping her brother to bring fresh greens to the rabbits) before we headed off to the market.

Once we got to the market she opted to play with her brother a little less and wait on customers a little more.

“Because,” she told Quinn. “I’m much more of a big kid now that I’m a kindergartner.”

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{ this moment }

September 3, 2010 in living + learning, this moment by eringoodman | 21 comments

A Friday ritual inspired by Soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember. 

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Happy weekend to you!

a new community

August 18, 2010 in community, living + learning, shifting perspective by eringoodman | 21 comments

The kids and I have visited what will soon be Lily’s new school several times in the past few weeks to pick up and drop off paperwork.

Each time we visit we spend some time “hunting for evidence” that we are going to LOVE being part of this new community. 

As many of you know I am struggling quite a bit with this transition. (Huh. Would you look at that? There’s that darn “S” word again.)

I am having a hard time embracing the reality that my sweet girl is moving out of the gardens and open-ended creative play of her beautiful Waldorf-inspired nursery school, her home away from home for the past three years, and into the world of giant yellow buses, hot lunch lines and standardized tests.

I’m slowly making peace with the fact that the beautiful farm-based cottage school that I have been attempting to pull together for the past four years did not manifest in time for kindergarten. That private school tuition is simply not sustainable for our family. That charter school lotteries did not fall in our favor. That homeschooling is an absolutely beautiful option, but not the right one for the unique dynamics of our family.

And that – despite my own baggage and biases and fears – in just a few days our daughter will begin public school.

And yet every time we visit her new school I am reassured.

On our last visit we spotted birdfeeders outside every classroom window and a thriving vegetable garden next to the main entrance.

We were greeted by kind and outgoing staff members who made us feel most welcome.

We read about sweet community events that took place the previous year, through children’s words, on bulletin boards.

And we peeked into library, art and music rooms that made my girl (and her mama) swoon with excitement.

Of course it is going to be different than preschool. Of course. 

And I know there are going to be plenty of things about public school that are going to challenge the heck out of this highly creative, paradigm-shifting, think-out-of-the-box mama.

But I also know that we will find support and love and beauty and community here. 

And these, my friends, are all very good things.

 

at the market

June 10, 2010 in farms + food, living + learning, living our dreams! by eringoodman | 10 comments

The kids and I worked our first Farmers’ Market yesterday, along with my mom, who I recruited to work for Pat’s Pastured.

(Have I mentioned how awesome my mom is? Really. She is amazing.)

I couldn’t take too many pictures because I was working (and keeping an eye on my kiddos) but I did mange to snap a few shots of our first time on the other side of the Market table.

One of our next door neighbors at the market is the lovely Polly Hutchinson of Robin Hollow Farm.

Not only did Polly help us with the little details like how the heck to get our market tent down at the end of the day, she also took some time to show my children the magic of Snapdragons.

And we got to gaze at her beautiful flowers the whole time we were there!

Thanks Polly!

It was a long day that included several downpours, a good amount of head-scratching, a couple of meltdowns (both kids and their mama) and ended in me collapsing in bed at 9 p.m…

…and I can’t wait to do it again!!

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* Can any farmers / writers out there set me straight on the correct way to write Farmers Market? I have seen it as Farmer’s Market, Farmers’ Market and Farmers Market. I think the second way is correct (a market that belongs to a group of farmers) but just thought I’d ask what you all think.

{ this moment }

May 28, 2010 in living + learning, living our dreams!, music + merriment, this moment by eringoodman | 18 comments

 A Friday ritual inspired by Soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember. 

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Happy weekend, friends.

work in progress :: spring on the farm

May 5, 2010 in farms + food, living + learning, living our dreams! by eringoodman | 14 comments

Still time to enter the Mother Daze book giveaway. See Monday’s post for details. And now here’s a (very quick!!) peek into what’s “in progress” in our world…

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:: We’re doing lots of cleaning at the farm where I work and where the kids and I will be helping to milk three Jersey Cows very soon!

:: And reading lots of great books from the library. 

:: And taking field trips.  

:: And doing a whole lot of watching, wishing and waiting.

Meanwhile back at the homestead…

:: We (finally!!!!!) have a chicken pen that holds our chickens in and keeps predators out. (Some of you may recall that I started this project almost six months ago and more than a few tears were shed in the process of building it.) I’ve been doing a little happy dance out by the barn every time I see beautiful leaves and flowers on our strawberry plants that the chickens can no longer scratch up — yay!!!!

:: Inside we are nurturing sunflower (and other mystery) seedlings and being totally blown away by just how much they grow each day.

:: And trying to make some sense of our new weekly rhythms, which include mama heading off to work at the farm (often with breakfast dishes and globs of oatmeal still strewn on the table).

:: And slowly sorting through displaced clothes, clutter and furniture in our upstairs hallway – the byproduct of a special new space I created this past month as a birthday gift to myself.  

Because as wonderful as everything that is going on in our world right now is, it’s a whole LOT of energy to manage and I know it’s going to take some quiet, soft-belly space every day to keep us all happy, healthy and able to enjoy the ride.

How about you? What’s in progress in your world these days?

kindergarten can wait

April 27, 2010 in living + learning, parenting by eringoodman

Last spring, as kindergarten registration loomed and I watched as my daughter’s friends’ parents made plans for their children, I did nothing.

“She’s just not ready,” I told my mother one day, when she asked what we would be doing for school the following fall.

“You’re not ready,” she responded.

I don’t remember what I said in response (it was basically the 35-year-old equivalent of “Whatever Mom”) but in the weeks that followed her words stayed with me.

Read more at kidoinfo.com…

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scenes from school vacation

February 19, 2010 in family fun, living + learning by eringoodman | 6 comments

This school vacation was about visiting!

:: The children’s room at the Maury Loontjens Library in Narragansett, RI, which is filled with fun activities and all the rocket, truck, guinea pig, horse and princess books we (and our friends) could ask for.

:: A favorite farm where we tromped through the snow to visit our bovine friends.

:: Going to the beach to collect sea glass with Kate and her children.

:: Papa’s work, where children of families facing a myriad of hardships are met with colorful walls, books and activities. And where our children got to enjoy re-visiting their artwork that Papa proudly displays in his office.

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It was also about relaxing at home. 

:: Parades in the living room.

:: Chasing rainbows made by our new solar-powered rainbow-maker.

:: Audio books at the kitchen table. (The plastic water bottle, by the way, is due to well water troubles that we are working to resolve.)

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This vacation was also about…

:: Stepping on toes, and (oh-so-many) potty accidents and silly squabbles and Mama learning to honor her limitations and trust that sometimes when things are getting a little too grumpy, and Mama’s voice is getting a little too loud and angry, and siblings are no longer “playing nicely,” a little movie-watching can be a really, really good choice for a family. Even a nature-loving, Waldorf-inspired, simple living kind of family.

 

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Happy weekend, friends.

a happy homecoming

January 13, 2010 in community, living + learning, waldorf-inspired by eringoodman | 12 comments

Our children returned to their beloved nursery school this week after a two-week vacation.

It felt so good to walk through the gate and up the steps, pausing as we always do, to enjoy the message and drawing on the blackboard.

The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow. And what will the robin do then, poor thing? Oh he’ll fly into the barn, to keep himself warm and tuck his head under his wing, poor thing.

In the classroom the sand table was filled with tiny treasures from nature, which would soon become props in creative play.

Wooden animals and blocks were laid out on the rug waiting for the children to breathe life into them.

On the sun porch, Miss Anne and one of the friends (that’s what our children call their classmates, “the friends”) tended to the snails in the tank.

And I smiled and sighed. I am so grateful that our children have this home-away-from-home, with its gentle but steady rhythms to come home to.

Later in the day, on the ride home, the kids were especially talkative, filling me in on the details of their day. But I think Lily summed up what they were feeling best when she said, “It was just so nice to be all together again. I mean it’s great to have vacation too, but we all miss each other terribly.”

getting ready

November 11, 2009 in holidays + celebrations, living + learning by eringoodman | 5 comments

While I am making phone calls and typing notes and mentally preparing for the RI Birth Network’s Third Annual Fall Forum: When Birth Doesn’t go as Planned, my children and their classmates are preparing for another very special annual event that will occur this weekend — The Lantern Walk.

On Friday night, just after dark, we will gather at the school for a bonfire, singing, a candle-lit stroll down the Wiggly Woggly Path, and the releasing of milkweed pod boats filled with candles and wishes.

It is an absolutely magical experience, one that our entire family looks forward to each November. And last week at school, the children began getting ready by decorating their lanterns.

I love how things often come together like this — in May it was dancing the Maypole the day after I returned from my first visit to New York city for a Power Moms book-signing event — and now this weekend as I get ready to host what is shaping up to be a very important event in our birth community, we will begin our weekend with the simplicity and sweetness of the Lantern Walk.

Such beautiful balance.

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